Quick Cryptic No 100 by Joker

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic
So here we are 20 weeks on and a century of quickies. They’re still some way short of the usual difficulty of the main cryptic, of course, there are no obscure words for the solutions and less GK is needed, but it seems to me the level is gradually rising and some clues would not be out of place in the Cryptic. Today’s took me 11 minutes including a Ctrl-Alt-PrtScn, paste into Paint.net and printing off the resulting page.

Across
8 IMPLORE – IMP = mischievous child, LORE = traditional knowledge; def. ‘beg’.
9 OUNCE – U = uranium inside ONCE = at one time; def. ‘old unit’.
10 EVERY – EVE = the day before, RY = abbr. for railway; def. ‘each taken separately’.
11 EYESORE – EYES = looks at, ORE = material dug out of mine; def. ‘not a pretty sight’.
12 MINIMUM – MINI = very short dress, MUM = mother; def. ‘bottom’.
14 EXTRA – Hidden word, IND(EX TRA)CKING; def. ‘bonus’.
15 LOCUS – LOCUST = destructive insect, has its final letter eradicated; def. ‘place’, LOCUS being the Latin word but used in English.
17 NOTABLE – NO TABLE = not one item of furniture; def. ‘worthy of attention’, as in ‘a notable exception’.
19 MINARET – (RAIMENT)*, an anagram at last; def. ‘part of a mosque’s fabric’. The pointy tower bit I believe.
20 DENIM – DEN = study, followed by IM = I am; def. ‘material’. the stuff jeans are made of, originally made by the André family as ‘serge de Nimes’ in France.
22 IGLOO – I = one, GLOO(MY) = dimly lit, not MY, ; def. ‘ice house’. Worth a smile, I thought.
23 ORDINAL – ORAL = spoken exam, insert (during) DIN = loud noise; def. ‘what may be first’. First, second etc. are ordinal numbers as opposed to one, two which are cardinals. You knew that.

Down
1 WINE – IN = home, carried by WE; W(IN)E, def. ‘drink’.
2 SPLEEN – SEEN = witnessed, insert P = parking, L = learner; def. ‘bad temper’.
3 COPY – CO = company, PY = P(ROPERT)Y left empty; def. ‘duplicate.’
4 DETERMINATION – DETER = put off, MI = M1 motorway, NATION = state; def. ‘drive’. Not obvious at first where the definition lies, tempting to think of US states, but easy once you have some checkers.
5 MOVEMENT – MOVE MEN = deploy troops, T = little time, ; def. ‘division of work’. As in ‘The Labour Movement’ I suppose, not the movement in a watch. Edit: as Andy has pointed out, it’s more simply a musical movement, e.g. part of a symphony.
6 INMOST – (NO MIST)*; def. ‘closest to the centre’.
7 LEVERAGE – LAGE(R) = most of lager, holds EVER = always,; def. ‘the power to influence’.
12 MILKMAID – MILK = gradually defraud, M = millions, AID = help,; def. ‘dairy worker’.
13 MUSHROOM – MUSH = pulpy mass, ROOM = space; def. ‘fungus’.
16 CANDLE – AND L (left) inside CE (abbr. for Church of England); def. is the whole clue, an &lit. def. Very smooth clue.
18 BANANA – BAN = outlaw, A NA (North American); def. ‘fruit’.
20 DODO – Proverbially ‘dead as a ….’ ; there have been many hoaxes involving Dodos, not least the phishing one from Australian service provider of that name, and a movie called ‘flock of Dodos’. Dodo can now mean any sort of hoax.
21 MOLE – The initial letters (‘primarily’) of ‘M(aster) O(f) L(urking) E(spionage), &lit. def.

18 comments on “Quick Cryptic No 100 by Joker”

  1. Just over 15 minutes to complete another fine puzzle. My solving has definitely improved since I started doing the QC. However I still find the main cryptic too hard. Spent about 20 minutes on today’s, got half a dozen answers and one of those was wrong.

    Count me as one who was initially thinking of US states for 4d which was my last one in. WINE was clever and IGLOO made me smile.

  2. 5 mins. I was surprised to see an &lit at 21dn, although it was a good example of what an &lit should be.

    MOVEMENT was my LOI after I eventually realised the “division of work” in the clue was referring to part of something like a symphony.

    Edited at 2014-07-25 11:10 am (UTC)

      1. I suffer from a split personality, pip, and have always used the crossword for the Quickie apart from perhaps the odd occasion when confused who I was at the time.
  4. About 20mins for me. Was on course for a PB and then got held up on the NE corner. Spent about 10 mins on 5d and 7d
  5. 10mins. 5d was my LOI because I, too, failed to spot the symphonic connection. We lived in Sydney for about 20 years but I don’t remember a Dodo phishing site. Well done to those who are sticking with it and thus finding it easier now.
  6. Perhaps I’m getting better as I thought this was relatively easy (I think I’ve tried about 20 QCs now, most of which I have failed to complete). This took around 25 minutes and I had no particular problems other than not being familiar with Dodos being regular hoax vehicles. I’ll have a go at the main crossword now, which should bring me back down to earth.
  7. I parsed 20D as DO (complete, as a verb) + DO (hoax, as a verb) – I can’t see any support in the usual reference works for DODO meaning hoax.
  8. At 20dn it is complete = DO + hoax = DO. A dodo is not a hoax, not in this country anyway.

  9. Found this one the easiest for a little while, especially after the much tougher recent ones. As it marks no.100, I wonder if it is somehow a restatement of an objective to make simpler but enjoyable cryptics, rather than be too 15×15 like.

    Only slight bother was with the bottom right and hoping 20dn was somehow a parrot joke 🙂 Then couldn’t get either duck or dupe out of my mind. Only worked it out after getting 23ac after having first tried to enter original 🙁

    Nigel from Surrey

  10. Humph – frustrating to try out two easy ones and reject them only to find they would have completed this for me. So (too?) simple – 1d and 10a. At least several did seem to just come to mind as right without too much bother at all. Probably just a rookie still finding my feet still with under 40 of these attempted I guess. Can only dream of sitting and getting it done in under an hour – probably 90 minutes my best so far, often much longer to get just 2/3 the way through… On the bright side, at least it gives me an excuse for a long ponder over a large cappuccino at my local Costa to me get started and keeps this old boy out of trouble for a bit!
  11. 100 and counting…

    I have tried most of them as a way of getting into cryptic crosswords. While there are periods of frustration,I am now getting better, and while not often finishing do at least get within 4-5 of the full grid.

    This blog is a lifeline in parsing some of the more obscure answers. So while I do not post often, do please know that your explanations are always welcome and and help me understand the weird world that is cryptic clue setting.

    1. Rules for improving at crosswords:

      – if there are some left you can’t do, put it aside for an hour or so and then go back to it. Amazing how that helps
      – when you come across an unfamiliar word take the trouble to look it up in a good dictionary. Then next time, you will remember it

      Signing your comments with a name also helps others; I seldom pay much attention to anonymouses

  12. Yay! This is one of the few I have completed so far. I agree with previous comment that perhaps the compiler is returning to the original concept of an easier cryptic crossword.

    I love reading about how the clues are parsed-many thanks.

Comments are closed.